The Malik Report

Red Wings fans, here’s a “pro tip”: familiarize yourself with Capgeek.com’s Red Wings salary cap chart. Under both the economic constraints of this CBA and the one which will hopefully be negotiated without any sort of lockout on the owners’ parts, the Wings will remain tied to the some of the decisions their management team has made going forward, and between the fact that the Wings will not tear themselves down to rebuild (would you pay to watch the Detroit Red Wings tank it for a year or three for the promise of something better half a decade from now? Me, neither) and the fact that the Wings believe in their prospects’ potential, it’s hard to believe that Ken Holland, Jim Nill, Mike Babcock, the team’s pro scouts and player mentors will sit down over the course of the next month and agree that the team needs to pawn off half a dozen players, tell Nick Lidstrom to retire (the CBC’s Elliotte Friedman told the Satellite Hotstove panel, at the 8:09 mark, that he believes Lidstrom may retire due to familial reasons as Holmstrom will retire and Lidstrom’s 2nd-oldest will go to Sweden to play hockey) and go wild in terms of making tons of trades and free agent signings.

The Red Wings’ GM seems to suggest that a combination of cautious decision-making, prospect promotions and perhaps a significant tweak or two might be all that’s in the offing for the Wings this summer in his first comments of the off-season, made to MLive’s Ansar Khan, but he is lock-step in his agreement with coach Babcock regarding his team’s relative depth:

“We definitely were not as deep as we have been in the past,’’ Holland said on Saturday. “We’ve got to figure out a way to get some of our depth back. We’ll explore the free-agent market, we’ll move in two or three kids, we’ll explore trades at the draft, like we always do. But at the end of the day, this (salary-cap) system is about methodically doing your work. Over the summer, we got to make some moves. But you can’t overhaul your team when you got (Pavel) Datsyuk, (Henrik) Zetterberg, (Niklas) Kronwall. We got pieces to build around.’‘

As Khan suggests, we pretty much know that Brad Stuart will leave to play closer to his San Jose-based family, Tomas Holmstrom may have been on his last legs, even the “experts” and people who are around the team on a very, very regular basis have no idea if Nicklas Lidstrom will return, and the fact that the team chose not to make any real public efforts to suggest that they’ll retain Jiri Hudler leaves his status up in the air as well, but even if Lidstrom leaves, that doesn’t mean that the team will go out and make massive forays into the free agent market, even if Ryan Suter or Zach Parise become available (and that’s not guaranteed):

“We’ve got some cap space, but there’s got to be somebody to sign,’’ Holland said. “Even if you get one or two players in unrestricted free agency, you need four lines. You can’t just make two signings in the summer and go on a long playoff run. This is a team sport. … We got some good pieces, but we’re not quite as deep.’‘

Holland likes his nucleus, which includes Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula and Danny Cleary up front and Kronwall on defense.

The Wings can’t really move Franzen, so they’re stuck with him. I do think that he’s still got room for improvement and I think that he’s going to be challenged to at least embrace a role as a better-skating sniper, but he’s not going anywhere.

Holland anticipates forward Gustav Nyquist and defenseman Brendan Smith, their two top prospects, being on the NHL roster at the start of next season. The third and fourth lines will get a boost with the return of injured players Darren Helm (lacerated tendons in forearm) and Patrick Eaves (concussion), both of whom Holland expects to be ready to go at the start of training camp.

We’ll pause here to provide injury updates from another Khan article, in which Holland says that Patrick Eaves (concussion) should be good to go come September…

“He feels pretty good,’’ Holland said. “He was doing some skating drills (this past week), starting to work out in the gym. We think he’ll be ready to roll in September at 100 percent.’‘

As should Darren Helm (torn tendons in his right arm), but we know that Danny Cleary’s going to need some significant surgery on his left knee, and Joey MacDonald’s status as Jimmy Howard’s would-be back-up for the 2012-2013 season really hinges upon how his back issues respond to treatment:

The backup goaltender didn’t play or practice after March 14, when he began experiencing back problems. Tests revealed a slightly bulging disc.

“We’ll assess where he is in the next couple of weeks,’’ Holland said. “We’re hoping rehab, injections and time off will be the answer.’‘

If that doesn’t do the trick, MacDonald might need surgery. He also had surgery to repair a bulging disc in 2006.

And if that’s the case, the Wings can’t necessarily afford to invest in MacDonald simply because his NHL-only contract next season would only cost the Wings $550,000.

As for the rest of the Wings’ issues, let’s head back to Khan’s main article for his assessment of his team’s baffling stumbles down the stretch, and its inability to reaffirm its identity as a high-scoring, puck-possession team in the playoffs against Nashville:

“I think our team played hard, the playoffs is a new season,’’ Holland said. “Sometimes you got to win 2-1. We kept giving up three. We felt if we could keep the special teams (battle) close, we had a chance because of our five-on-five play. I thought it was a series where we made more big mistakes than they did. They’re a team that could capitalize on mistakes and make you pay. Nashville has four lines. They have a chance to go on a long playoff run.’‘

Holland added, “If you look back on the series, the turning point was the two games at home. If you can’t win a home game, you’re not going to win a series.’‘
...
“There is no magic wand and Stanley Cup dust you can sprinkle over a team,’’ Holland said. “We have no financial advantage. It’s got to be about a plan—building, drafting, developing. It’s a process. I believe we can be a playoff team, and any playoff team has a chance.’‘

Comments

couple things i see that you CAN do, without spending a dime(spending dimes will of course improve us too, but here is some ideas):

#1 I know we all love #5 and #96, but its time to let them go and get the next gen players going before they are 31-34 yrs. old and injury prone. Let’s get things moving.

#2 Change your style of play. We have talent galore. What we need is change in tactics. Use your speed, and put your big bodies in front of the net. I see every other team push the puck up the ice(yes during the opponents line changes) to get in the zone, we never do it. The talent takes care of the goals. For right now lets not worry too much on the scoring, that comes with the changes.

#3 Work your tail off to break and beat any trap system that comes at you. It stymies us all the time. You get in the zone, your halfway home.

#4 I must re-emphasize this: CHANGE your tactics! PK seems to be good and was much improved. The PP we know needs fixed, so input new ways to circulate the puck. Going back to the point is exactly what was wrong in the playoffs. You kept it ON THE PERIMETER!!! Work it inside, have a floater move through the lane constantly to either receive a pass or a simple distraction to pull a PK’er down the in the slot. If you follow basketball, your familiar with this concept. It DOES work!

As for personnel, I’ll leave that to another posting. But I will say this; start with a few within the organization. We have some gems just waiting to bust it wide open. Young players = equal hungry players. Hungry players haven’t won a cup. Hunger wins games in the playoffs. Just look back at our series with the Inbredators to see it.

Posted by
NIVO
from underpants gnome village on 04/22/12 at 02:19 AM ET

#1 Nick Lidstrom is still one of the very best defensemen in the league if if the we simply “let him go” there is nobody in the league who can replace him. To suggest that anyone should want him to retire is completely unbelievable. You can’t honestly want him to retire, can you? I mean…seriously? Are you out of your mind? I want him to play until he’s fifty, or at least until he slips out of the top ten defensemen in the league…

holland’s quotes give me absolutely no solace or confidence. zero. nothing. it sounds like denial. they “played hard?” no they *#$%@& didn’t! no way! they haven’t looked like a team that hates to lose in months if not years!

who’s he kidding? himself, i’d argue. those title teams of ‘97 and ‘98 went to war the way the preds did against us. the ‘02 team was an all star team built to win the cup. the ‘08 team was at its peak talent-wise and had gritty guys like mccarty and drake. none of that was present this year!

and everything he talked about them needing to do in this series are all the things they couldn’t do. they’re gonna move up 2-3 kids and look into trades and free agents? great. awesome.

i’m not advocating tanking, but to hang onto “we like our team” coupled with “we need a few tweaks” just guarantees more water-treading mediocrity. and i’m not interested in that.

What a pile of crap by Kenny Holland. “We think we can be a playoff team” (insert laugh); well KH, it is all on you and your lack of foresight the past 3 yrs to improve the team via trades or free agency. And now you state the obvious (insert another laugh). At the deadline the genius said, “I like this team”. You know what Kenny, so does most of your opponents. This soft team was never going far in the playoffs, injuries or not, and needs to find about 7-8 good hockey players just to be competitive in the division. Retire with Nick, KH as you promised. I hope Red Wing Nation is as po’ed as I am over the direction this team is headed, and it starts at the top.

LapsedWinger April 21, 2012 at 11:16PM

Unfortunately, THIS ^^^^^^^ and THIS ↓↓↓↓↓↓
“The Red Wings were eliminated in five games in the first round by a Nashville team Holland called the deepest his club has faced in some time.”

Kenny they are a “deep team” because their GM went out there and got some hockey players at the deadline and didn’t sit on his hands and blow smoke up his players butts.

powayslugger April 22, 2012 at 12:07AM

Posted by
Alex
on 04/22/12 at 03:17 AM ET

The Wings can’t really move Franzen, so they’re stuck with him. I do think that he’s still got room for improvement and I think that he’s going to be challenged to at least embrace a role as a better-skating sniper…

Franzen stopped “improving” when he was taken off the PK. That’s when he became the lazy-ass POS he is today. So, if the Wings want to see him once again become a threat as a power-forward (instead of an opportunistic floater), they simply have to put him back on the PK (for at least one shift).

Once he feels like he’s involved in the whole game, maybe he’ll wake up and start playing the whole game. If he doesn’t do that by next year’s trade deadline, trade his lazy ass for a bag of pucks (used ones will be fine) – because the longer his style of “floating” stays around, the longer the rest of the team will play just like him.

...would you pay to watch the Detroit Red Wings tank it for a year or three for the promise of something better half a decade from now?

Look, no one would pay to watch a team “tank it” for a year or two, George. But I’d be more than happy to watch a team without Franzen but with a marginal NHL player, like Tatar, than continue to watch over-paid lazy-asses floating around the ice collecting fat pay checks.

No one wants to watch a “loser.” But that’s exactly what we did for the past five games. The least the Wings can do is to make it exciting by putting “new blood” on the ice.

The one memory I’ll take from this series is the joy I saw from Nyquest when Emmerton scored his goal. He didn’t even get an assist on the play, even though the way he drove to the net was a major reason Emmerton scored. That’s what I want to see in the playoffs – players who are out there because it’s a joy just to be out there. Lazy asses like Franzen lost that feeling a long time ago.

If “Ken Holland has no ‘magic ‘solutions to remedy the Red Wings’ issues” then maybe The Captain has them.

Bring back The Captain!!!!!!

With his departure all heart and magic was gone from the team. It was all downhill since then and I think this was not coincidence.

Posted by
Alex
on 04/22/12 at 03:36 AM ET

mostly, 93 did play the PP, no?

As did Hank and Pavel, along with their PK time (usually at least one shift per PK). In the past, Franzen played both the PP and the PK. But they stopped that when he became a “big-time” scorer in the playoffs.

This year (and last), he sat on the bench and rested during PKs so he’d be ready for the playoffs. Didn’t work out so well did it?

It’s time for him to earn his money. Get his lazy ass off the bench and get him involved in the game. If that’s too much for him, then get him off the team (and I don’t care how they do it). I’m sick and tired of seeing him wandering aimlessly around the offensive zone looking for someplace from which he can score easy goals. Enough is enough.

Holland has some good points. There’s a lot of proper culture in the locker room with Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Kronwall, Lidström, etc. Add some of the youngsters and explore the market. This is the first time in a couple of years when you have cap space, and a decent selection of free agents.

I don’t think you can blame Holland for lack of trades, because it’s expensive to acquire high end talent that way. Unless you want to part with all your picks and the best prospects. Not to mention an important roster player. Your method of developing talent hurts in that regard, because there’s little body of work to convince a trade partner that Emmerton (to pick one) is a star in the making.

But now there’s a retooling window that you should try to exploit, and the Red Wings brand should be able to attract talent. It’ll be interesting to watch.

Time for us Wings’ fans to accept reality. Holland is exactly right. There are no magic fixes. Welcome to parity. Sad but true. Even if the Wings score an elite forward and/or defenseman over the summer, one or two players are not going to make this team dominant. As someone said on another thread, there will not be any more dynasties in the NHL. Look at the playoffs this year! Might as well flip a coin.

Pav’s line needs help for sure, as Babcock said after the last game. Maybe Bert can be the “big body,” and if we get Parise… If not, Nyquist.

I know Hudler was a lot better this season, but I’m still not sold on him mostly due to his size. I wonder if Sheahan could be the “big body” on Z and Fil’s line.

Having Helm and Eaves back will make a third line with Miller.

The fourth line? Who knows…

I do think Nick and Homer will retire, so there’s room for Smith and a Suter. Suter may not want to leave Nashville, but they may not be able to afford to keep him.

I do believe an infusion of youth is called for, and necessary. The Wings may not have the luxury of “over-ripening” young players in Grand Rapids anymore. Coach these young guys and let them play! It frustrated me that Nyquist was used so little, and Smith and Sheahan not at all, in the playoffs when we so desperately needed energy and goals. As another commenter said, young = hungry. The Wings need hunger.

I haven’t researched his contract, but why is Franzen not movable? Does he have a no trade clause? I’m sorry, but I have really cooled on him. I love the guy, but something’s going on in his head that is holding him back. Last year in the playoffs, he was injured badly. But he had no excuse for disappearing this year.

I’m still grieving over the end of the Wings’ season, but not as much as I normally would, because I do think parity - in terms of salary cap and other teams figuring out the “Red Wings Way” of playing - was a new reality all year.

Posted by
MsRedWinger
from the State where Tigers roam in the Spring on 04/22/12 at 11:32 AM ET

This is the same bullshit I heard from Holland last offseason. This team is a shell of a shell of the team they were in 08 and it’s not going to be remedied by patchwork free agent signings and cautious decision making, or wishing and hoping your prospects turn out to be more than they’re projected to be. Either they get bold now and try to salvage what’s left or they’ll find themselves selling the team off piece by piece when they’re in the lottery a few short years from now.

Posted by
Andrew
from Detroit on 04/22/12 at 11:52 AM ET

P.S. I hope Holland can get a solid, healthy back up goaltender. (Could Mrazek possibly be ready?) JoeyMac’s back issues concern me. I think it would help Jimmy to know there’s a reliable back up to take some of the pressure off.

Posted by
MsRedWinger
from the State where Tigers roam in the Spring on 04/22/12 at 12:04 PM ET

Either they get bold now and try to salvage what’s left or they’ll find themselves selling the team off piece by piece when they’re in the lottery a few short years from now.

Posted by Andrew from Detroit on 04/22/12 at 09:52 AM ET

What, precisely, do you think Holland should do?

I ask that respectfully and in all seriousness because I’m reading a lot of criticism - not just you - but I’m not seeing a whole lot of realistic solutions being offered.

Posted by
MsRedWinger
from the State where Tigers roam in the Spring on 04/22/12 at 12:06 PM ET

Holland is exactly right. There are no magic fixes.

OK, then how about some managerial prowess? He’s the only one who believed there were magic solutions when he essentially stood pat for the past three years, making no attempts to better his team and just hoping against hope that they would simply become better.

Nobody was asking for magic solutions, so why the hell is he concerned with them?

I think next year you will see a fresh, younger team with Smith, Kindl, Nyquist, Mursak, Emmerton, in addition to Helm & Ericsson.

The Wings need a #1 Dman & #1 scoring winger.

Posted by w2j2 on 04/22/12 at 03:16 AM ET

So it’ll be something like this?

#1 scoring winger-Pavel-Nyquist

Franzen-Z-Fil

Miller-Helm-Eaves

Emmerton-Abby-Mursak

Lidas/ #1 Dman-White

Kronwall-Erricson

Quincy-Smith

That leaves out Bert-Huds-Kindl-Cleary. That also assumes Homer retires and Lidstrom stays (which I am very skeptical of). I don’t see that team as significantly better than the one they have now. It appears the Wings must either jettison veterans to let the kids play or hope the kids will slip through waivers (don’t think Yzerman won’t be watching for who is sent down. He knows these kids after watching them while learning the ropes.)

not really. i think the assumption is that Bertuzzi and Hudler aren’t Wings next year. Kindl is a dman so he’d be rotate in/out as #7 (or higher if he earns it). Cleary would fit in with rotation with Emmerton and Mursak.

basically, depth and options. something the Wings didn’t really have the past month or two especially with Helm out.

It would appear that Homer probably won’t return, that Hudler’s chances of returning are 50/50 at best, that Stuart’s likely out the door (as is Conklin, obviously), that the Wings are worried about MacDonald’s back issues…

And I’m not sure if Emmerton or Mursak have futures in Detroit as, especially if the Wings add a forward, somebody like Emmerton might lose his job to Nyquist as he brings more offense, and Eaves does Mursak’s job better than he does. I don’t know what’s going to happen with Jakub Kindl, either, as he has lots of promise but might be squeezed out if the team chooses to go with Brendan Smith as their #6/7 guy.

In terms of free agents, I think that the “glue guy” will actually be Mike Knuble—he had a rough go in Washington, but can be very useful in a limited role, and might want to finish his career as a big checking winger in his home state—I think it’s much, much more likely that Suter stays with Nashville and that the Wings go after Matt Carle (who’s coming into his prime at 28 and had the Flyers worried contract-wise) or Dennis Wideman (who’s smaller, and 29, but tends to post 40-45 points a season) in terms of their defensive signing.

The only other intriguing options after Suter, Carle and Wideman are late-bloomer Jason Garrison and Matt Gilroy, who may remain with their respective teams in Florida and Ottawa, but after that, we’re looking at the Wings trying to make some sort of trade.

In terms of offense, since everybody, including New Jersey, will attempt to give the Minnesota native that is Parise a payday like nobody’s business, so the Wings may have to go the trade route as this year’s crop of forward free agents is awfully shallow. After Parise’s 31 goals, you find that Teemu Selanne had 26 (and he’s going nowhere), Hudler had 25, Ray Whitney had 24 (and he’s 39), graybeards in Olli Jokinen and Shane Doan, who probably aren’t going anywhere, had 23 and 22 goals, respectively, and then you find Alex Semin, who’s not an upgrade on Hudler in terms of consistency or effort on a game-by-game basis.

The Wings could hope that PA Parenteau, a 29-year-old who posted 67 points with the Islanders, doesn’t re-sign, but the 29-year-old had only 18 goals this past year and 20 the year before, and he’s only got 3 seasons of NHL experience on his resume.

Could the Wings look at David Moss, who’s more of a checking forward than a 20-goal guy, or the ever-fragile Jochen Hecht, who tend to post 20 goals a year but were injured this past season? Could the Wings take a crazy, if not nearly insane chance on Scott Gomez if the Canadiens buy him out? Sure, but he’s no goal-scorer.

After Parise, it’s all a gamble, and as such, if the Wings don’t land him (and scuttlebutt suggests that the Wings made it known as of last summer that they would be very interested in bringing Parise here), they’re probably going to have to make a trade.

It’s go big or find yourself forced to surrender some assets and maybe even roster players to finally remedy the team’s needs for a top-six forward who can score 30+ goals and a top-pair defenseman who can deliver 50+ points and the kind of mobility and outlet passing that a healthy Rafalski once provided. Add a “glue guy” to the mix off the free agent market, decide whether to go with MacDonald or to search the goalie market to figure out whether Jonas “the Monster” Gustavsson’s in the mood for a career re-set or maybe that Chris Mason can play better with a more solid defense in front of him, and then either trade Emmerton, Mursak and/or Kindl or let them decide their playing futures in training camp (which is usually how the Wings prefer things to go)...

And, barring any trades, those are the likely moves I see the Wings attempting to make this summer.

I don’t see the Wings moving their nuclear deterrent in Bertuzzi, for better or worse, the team is stuck with Franzen unless there’s some sort of one-time amnesty buy-out prior to the next CBA taking effect, and if there is wiggle room in terms of the team’s forwards and defense, I think that Emmerton, Mursak and Kindl are the ones who have to be worried about their job security.

I’m starting to wonder if we’ll see more on the trade front (no, Rick Nash isn’t going to a Central Division rival) in which a few top prospects and the aforementioned iffy prospects might be moved instead of free agent fireworks, but this is all one man’s speculation and nothing more.

And it looks like the locker room clean-out will take place either tomorrow or, more likely, on Tuesday.

I dont entirely know there is a lot he can do, but I do know that this core as it is will not win. I think Smith and Nyquist are nice prospects and will help the Wings in the coming years, for sure, but Im still skeptical as to how good they’ll be.

In the “bold move” department, I would strongly consider trading Filppula for whatever bit of promising youth you can get. His stock is high right now because of a career year, but there are certainly signs (high PDO or “puck luck”) that he won’t maintain that level of production, not to mention his consistently low corsi numbers in his years playing for the Wings. I think he’s proven he just isnt the piece we need right now.

Posted by
Andrew
from Detroit on 04/22/12 at 04:51 PM ET

And I say Filppula because he’s entering the final year of his contract and is actually tradeable, unlike Franzen. Cleary is entering the last year of his contract as well, but he doesnt really have a whole lot of value right now.

Posted by
Andrew
from Detroit on 04/22/12 at 04:57 PM ET

i think the assumption is that Bertuzzi and Hudler aren’t Wings next year.

I would like to agree but Bertuzzi, as George says, will be here next year. For what he provides and the price he commands, he isn’t going anywhere. As for Huds? As much as I’m not a big supporter of him, he did give 20+ goals and actually went to the net in the playoffs. If Nyquist can replace him then what do you do with Huds? I believe he is UFA so we get nothing for letting a 20+ goal scorer go on a team that needs goal scoring? There are no easy answers and every move is going to be dissected by all the critics, me included.

I’d tell Hudler to take a hike, Homer to retire, Draper Cleary’s ass, and tell Quincey to take a hike as well. As well, I’ve gone with the philosophy that I think Holland is putting forth, which is Datsyuk is the best player so no one gets paid more than him. What this mainly hinges on of course, is TPH taking a pay cut. But if Holland goes to him and tells him THIS is the roster he wants to create for TPH’s one last shot at the Cup, I would think/hope Lidstrom would see the bigger picture and be willing to take the cut so more skilled players can be added to the roster.

Now of course if the cap drops to say 55 million (that I think is the lowest it would go, because I can’t see teams like DET, PHI, PIT, TOR etc being too willing to be handcuffed again, so this would be their limit), it means only one of Parise and Suter could be added. But still, I don’t think this is out of the question. and I would LOVE to see that be the Wings’ 2012/13 roster. Having Helm and Eaves back with Miller would make a great third line as MsRedWinger said, and I think that fourth line would be good for energy and to grind on the opposing team. I also think it would be a line that Babcock wouldn’t have to be afraid to play. I would like to see a much more even split for ice time next season, something along the lines of the top two lines get 18 minutes each, and the bottom two 12 each.

Posted by
Alzy
from Cambridge, Ontario, Canada on 04/22/12 at 05:37 PM ET

Alzy, why would you get rid of Cleary? on a bum knee, he was one of our best players in the playoffs and one of the few who played with heart.

Here you go. KH could have easily had A. Kostitsyn for the 1st round pick he gave for Quincey and a bag of pucks.

From Sporting News on Feb 27, 2012:

“Andrei Kostitsyn, 27, [6’0, 214, left wing, shoots left] would bring some goal-scoring ability to a Predators team that has, at times, lacked it. In return, the Canadiens got a second-round pick in the 2013 draft and the conditional pick they sent to Nashville in the Hal Gill trade.”

Some goal-scoring ability was just what the doctor ordered for the Wings. Imagine him on Pavel line. But KH chose to not make it happen. Kindl or Smith would have done a better job in the playoffs than Qman. Guaranteed.

Posted by
Alex
on 04/22/12 at 09:13 PM ET

Alex, someone made a comment a few days ago that people seem to talk about trading players as if it’s like a video game where you press X and it just happens.

just because we could have given more doesn’t mean anything. we don’t know what, or if, Holland made an offer for him. it could have been turned down for a number of reasons, even if it was more than what Nashville offered.

About The Malik Report

The Malik Report is a destination for all things Red Wings-related. I offer biased, perhaps unprofessional-at-times and verbose coverage of my favorite team, their prospects and developmental affiliates. I've joined the Kukla's Korner family with five years of blogging under my belt, and I hope you'll find almost everything you need to follow your Red Wings at a place where all opinions are created equal and we're all friends, talking about hockey and the team we love to follow.